In general, a mobile planting apparatus is used in agricultural applications where manual seed planting would be impractical. The mobile planting apparatus is most often designed and dedicated to the particular application, since each type of seed usually will differ in physical characteristics, optimum plant spacing, optimum planting depth, etc. Thus there are different planters for corn (medium seed, low seed rate), potatoes (large seed, low seed rate), soybeans (very small seed, very high seed rate), etc.
The mobile planting apparatus is equipped with a control system and a seed delivery or distribution system. The control system controls the flow or supply of seeds fed to the distribution system, and the distribution system plants the seed or seeds at the proper seed spacing and depth. Because many mobile planting apparatus are able to plant a plurality of rows simultaneously, each planting apparatus usually incorporates a plurality of control and distribution systems, one set for each row.
Although a mobile planting apparatus of the type just described greatly increase the efficiency with which planting can be achieved, they do have some limitations. The most important limitation is that the operator receives no feedback concerning the planter performance. Accordingly, there is a need for a system which can monitor and display planter performance data control and distribution systems.
An example of an existing planter monitor system is the PC2 Planter Computer manufactured by Micro-Trak Systems, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, and which is described in "PC2 Planter Computer User's Manual," First Edition, Revision 1-1, December 1986, which is incorporated herein by reference. However, this planter monitor system is limited in the amount of performance data monitored and displayed.
There are several planter performance parameters of which there is a need for the operator to receive feedback. For example, it would be desirable to alert the operator in the case of a malfunction, such as if one of the seed delivery systems becomes blocked. Also, the system should display or identify the locality or region of malfunction.
There is also a need for a system which monitors a selected row or rows being planted to obtain a distribution record of the selected row or rows. This feature would allow the operator to identify intermittent malfunctions of the mobile planting apparatus in addition to the identification of total malfunctions.
There is also a need for a monitor which can calculate and display the deviation from the optimal seed population and distribution. Such a system must monitor the ground speed of the mobile planting apparatus and the performance of each row to calculate a seed rate, population or spacing, and which further compares the calculated performance with the optimal seed rate population or spacing and which displays the percent error deviation from the optimal performance. This feature would allow the operator to optimize seed population and distribution by providing the operator with the necessary information to make adjustments to the speed of the mobile planting apparatus and/or to the control and distribution systems of the mobile planting apparatus to arrive at the optimal seed population and distribution.
There is further a need for a generic monitoring system which can be used on many planters made by different manufactures and which can be used on many different types of planters (e.g. potatoes, corn or soybean planters). To accomplish this latter goal, the planter monitor system must be able to accurately monitor a wide variety of seed types (large and small) and a wide variety of seed planting rates (high and low) and any combination thereof which can occur within the scope of seed planting. Such a generic system would ensure that a minimum of modifications were required to adapt the monitoring system to fit any seed planting application.
Another drawback with existing planter apparatus and monitors is that cannot accurately monitor the performance across the wide variety of environmental conditions in which such planters must necessarily be used. The presence of dirt and moisture greatly reduces the accuracy of existing planter monitors due to the nature of the seed sensors used to detect seeds being planted. Another drawback to existing monitors is that there is very little if any flexibility in the manner in which existing monitors scan the planted rows. For example, while it may be desirous at some times to continuously and sequentially scan all planting rows and display the corresponding data, it may at other times be more advantageous to constantly view the performance characteristics of only a single row for a period of time, or still at other times to display only those rows which are planting out of certain specified limits.
Finally, it is desirable to make the monitoring system as "user-friendly" as possible. A user-friendly monitor system would include some type of display and user console for interacting with the operator. The display and user console would provide multiple types of user selected planter performance data in an easy to use format.